114 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 20. 
nursery trade, that a single member of it should sleep 
soundly on his jiillow after seeing such frauds, without 
exposing them. I only wish I had access to the caverns 
of the Cyclops, where Jupiter’s thunderbolts were manu¬ 
factured. D. Beaton. 
(To be continued.') 
CHEAP PLANTS FOR WINDOWS, BALCONIES, 
AND FRONTAGE GARDENS. 
I 
A gentleman lately expressed his great surprise, that 
upon the whole the writers in The Cottage Gardener 
keep so clear of each other. This has not been arrived 
at without some trouble; for frequently the statements 
of a coadjutor on one Thursday have constrained us to 
look out for another subject, to avoid the appearance of 
monotony; and for these constrained shifting of sub¬ 
jects I am chiefly obliged to my friend Mr. Beaton. 
From the window and the balcony, the vase and the 
basket, there is scarcely any gradation to the small 
diminutive few yards of a flower-garden ; but even these 
our coadjutor threatens, ere long, to make the subject of 
his peculiar care, though hitherto they have remained 
something like common ground between us. I have no 
doubt that much additional interest will then be thrown 
over the subject, and in that I will rejoice, as there are 
few classes whom it would be more important to imbue 
with a love of floral beauty than our active artisans 
and industrious tradesmen, who reside in such nice, 
snug little cottages, that all that is wanted to render 
their outside eminently attractive, are clean, stubby 
plants in the window and balcony, a rose or honey¬ 
suckle over the door, and a sweet flower-plot in its 
vicinity. 
Owing partly to the zest awakened by our pages, 
not only are these sweet lilliputian gardens becoming 
more common, but a different taste for filling them has 
been engendered. Right or wrong, the old system of 
planting mixtures of herbaceous plants, and, perhaps, a 
few shrubs, with all its advantages and beauties—and 
they were many—is being superseded by the new 
grouping system. The extremes of society soon meet in 
the tone of fashion. The labourer must have his group 
of geraniums and verbenas, as well as his more aristo¬ 
cratic employer. But so far as we can judge, this feeling 
is chiefly active among the ladies of clergymen, lawyers, 
and men of business, and descending from them, is 
being actively diffused among the working middle 
classes of society. Leaving out of view all discussion 
as to the merits of separate systems of planting and 
arrangement, we bail every such attention to flowers as 
an omen of social progression. In the case of those 
who have conveniences, who keep a gardener, or an in¬ 
telligent labourer, the whole affair becomes rather more 
simple than the growing of a cucumber or a melon. 
For others, who have no such helps, and no conveniences 
but their garret, their window, and, perhaps, a sash or 
two of glass, there has been no lack of information as 
to making the very best of them. From having to resort 
to many a make-shift, we can place ourselves in the 
position of almost every reader apt to grumble at his 
limited conveniences. Instead of getting into a discon¬ 
tented mood, let us make the very'best of our circum¬ 
stances, and then wc shall not have time to be grumbling 
and uncharitable. 
But, there are many who wish to enjoy the beauty of 
beds of flowers in summer, and to be saved the trouble of 
looking after them in winter. Here was a large, new field 
for the enterprising tradesman. But the “protection” 
ways of the trade all but blocked up every avenue of 
outlet; 18s., 12s., 9s. per dozen for bedding-out plants 
were sums that comparatively few could pay ; not that for 
many plants, such as large scarlet geraniums, these sums 
were too high, considering the trouble bestowed upon 
them in keeping them in pots during the winter, and in a 
nice, green, growing state. In fact, the tradesman could 
make nothing of it, and the purchaser was often disap¬ 
pointed, because the plants had become so stunted and 
pot-bound before being turned out. Other things were 
priced in proportion, though requiring not a fourth of 
the time and labour, and the price was thus kept up by 
the necessary smallness of the demand. Profits were 
obtained, if obtained at all, by dealing with th e fete, 
rather than the many. It never seemed to occur to our 
shrewd commercial plant men, that getting rid of twelve 
plants, with a penny profit upon each, at the same ex¬ 
pense for time and labour, that they could dispose of one 
plant for sixpence profit, was by far the best speculation 
of the two. The idea of bedding plants for the million 
was horse-faughed. The half-earnest, half-jest prophecy, 
that some of these plants might, and would ere long, be 
sold for a penny a-piece, was considered too outrageous 
even for a joke ; and yet, not a vast many months after¬ 
wards, Mr. Ferguson, of Stowe, exhibited large trays 
full of cut Verbena blossoms at the Metropolitan shows, 
stating that these, with many other bedding plants, he 
was prepared to supply at one penny each, if fifty dozen 
were taken, allowing from a fifth to a sixth part of these 
to be geraniums; it being understood that the price 
would rise as the numbers decreased, that the orders 
should be given early, and that a goodly number of one 
kind should be taken. 
Many statements on this subject have reached us 
from sellers and buyers, and I will here fairly endeavour 
to meet them by answering the following questions. 
1st. Can such selling pay the seller? Only in certain 
circumstances. At one time I struck a great portion, 
and even now a considerable portion of bedding plants 
in spring, placing the cuttings in beds, and tiles in heat, 
and either pricking them out when struck thickly into 
preparatory beds, or planting out from the first beds at 
once in May. Scarlet geraniums might be so managed, 
but then they seldom bloom well when so young. If 
nice healthy plants, verbenas, cupbeas, petunias, &c., 
struck early in spring and hardened off, will bloom as 
well, though not quite so early, as those struck in 
autumn, a dozen of these, we think, would cost less 
than a scarlet geranium struck in July, potted in 
August or September, and kept healthy all the winter. 
Even for such spring-struck things to pay, I should 
deem the following conditions necessary;—1. The kinds 
should be old-established varieties, suitable for bedding, 
so that cuttings in abundance may easily be obtained. 
Novelty and superiority, in a florist’s estimation, must 
ever be paid for. 2. The varieties grown must be 
limited to a few well-defined colours. 3. The orders 
must be for a goodly number of the same kind; the 
hunting for a few of this, and still fewer of that, would 
eat up all the profit, nay, from the very time required, 
entail a loss. 4. Anything like potting the plants could 
never be thought of. From the pans in which they 
were struck, or the preparatory beds in which they were 
pricked out, the plants would require to be carefully 
lifted, part of the earth shaken away, the roots then laid 
in damp moss, and the tops in dry, and thus forwarded 
to their destination. Geraniums and calceolarias struck 
oven in autumn, but just kept healthy in winter, with 
from one to two square inches of room each, could be 
thus managed. 
2ndly. Would it suit the purchaser ? If it did the 
number would soon be increased a hundred-fold. Suc¬ 
cess, however, would depend tqjou himself and his cir¬ 
cumstances. Did he purchase such plants in the begin¬ 
ning of April, and possess the means of pricking them 
out into intermediate preparatory beds, under glass, lie 
might calculate on transplanting fine, rooted, robust 
plants in the middle of May. Did he wait until that 
